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Kasim Osmani

Yeterday, social media lashed out at Axact after NYT report disclosed its million-dollars fake degrees scam. Axact appears to be ‘world’s leading IT company’ as its slogan reads; however, most of its office floors (at least at DHA) are occupied with agents who operate in Middle East region luring Arab/international people with certified US degrees solely on basis of their professional experience. These degrees range from Bachelors, Masters, and PhD (Axact takes pains to prepare thesis for you as well, if you don’t have enough time or skills!).

Agents are advised to use Bayt.com or Linkdin as source and it is said to customer that either of these organizations have forwarded his/her profile for consultations. As a matter of fact, while I was working at Axact’s DHA office, the Bayt.com, largest job search engine in Middle East, warned Axact not to use their name as source, after which, we were advised to use Linkdin or else manipulate the script somehow.

Axact agents tell customers the main reason why big corporations do not hire you is absence of bachelors, masters, or PhD degree that they can get sitting home. Our script read like: “you don’t have to take classes, or, listen to online lectures, or take pains for admissions and other documented procedures. Just log on to our university website and our Senior Academic Officer will enroll you. It takes less than five minutes and you receive internationally certified/attested degree within couple of months solely based on your professional experience. ”

Indeed, there is no criterion for professional experience of the applicant. You may get even PhD degree with as minimum as one year personal experience. It is all situational and manipulative. Only thing that matters is to pay enrollment fee after logging on to university website, and then, continue to pay unless your accounts are squeezed to figure zero.

Once a customer pays enrollment fee, he is in the trap. Now, senior agents (closers) would call him from time to time asking more and more money for attestations from concerning embassies and/or shipment charges until his pocket runs dry.

It was quite an embarrassing and decisive day for me to quit Axact, when a customer was probably fed up with paying extra attestation/registration fee. The senior agent asked him to wait for a moment so they could bring Mr.ABC from Egyptian embassy over conference call, who would guide you further as to why that attestation is mandatory.

Indeed, there was no Mr.ABC from Egyptian embassy; rather, it was one of senior Axact agents who spoke like native Arabs. He sat beside the agent who was already on phone and pretended to be talking from embassy. They ultimately got him pay more for that attestation. This is one out of hundreds of calls each day.

As for the universities that offer degrees on basis of professional experience, all are virtual and have no physical address, though they appear to be located in the United States (and so do agents tell to customers). According to NYT report, these university websites are registered in Cyprus and Latvia.

The punch line for all this business is “a degree solely based on professional experience”. An idea that dates back to the close of World War II, when many retired soldiers were jobless and the US Government issued special provisions allowing soldiers to obtain academic degrees on basis of their experience so they could get employment to earn livelihood.

Have said all this, I admit the silence I had adopted for so long. However, it always made me uncomfortable to think as to what is going at Axact. Whatever I have said above is, I say on oath, 100% true. I have tried to give neutral inside picture and want readers to decide it is legal or not. This is what has been going on at Axact floors for years. Many employees would say degrees are made-in-Karachi and I would try to shun each possibility as rumor. However, for me, the NYT report has proved to be the last nail on Axact’s coffin.

I left Axact within a month of my joining in sales department, thinking it too controversial to continue with. According to agreement, we were bound not to disclose the nature of job as people generally do not understand. Today, all I want is proper investigations that could declare this creepy business as legal or illegal and take practical action accordingly, since it is matter of Pakistan’s reputation in entire world and it is about education, the holiest of human professions.

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This story should be a lot bigger – I’ve noticed that a lot of commenters who had same experience at Axact say the same things. They’re running one of the world’s biggest fake degree scams and are now encroaching upon Pakistan’s media space to legitimize themselves. Anyone who’s seen Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh speak knows that he has ‘con job’ written all over him.

And Axact just shot itself in the foot by having its lawyers (who knows if it’s even a real law firm, their manuscript seemed unprofessional) sue an online blog – now New York Times has picked up Axact’s attempt to shut down free speech and it’s going viral around the world.

I remember since my university time Axact was a shady company. There were rumors about their “Porn” business as well. But this fake degree empire is even worst than porn business. It would not have brought this much shame to Pakistan. and Axact can’t deny now.. all their sites including Axact.com, freeinsaf.com and even bolnetwork.com are leading to same hosting server which is owned by company. This same server is hosting most of the fake university websites.
[Proof] Axact website and Fake University’s websites are owned by Axact itself – See more at: http://www.pakistanprobe.com/2015/05/proof-axact-website-and-fake-university-websites-are-owned-by-Axact-itself.html#.VVs-G_mqqko

David

I worked for Axact for period of 3 months in 2013 as a Senior Brand Manager and I left as soon as I worked out their business model. I can testify that all of what has been said by Kasim is true, most people leave the company realizing their mistake of joining within months without backup employment like I did. We all land on our feet though. But Kasim had more courage than I did leaving such a lucrative package so soon.

There are too many websites to count and the revenue is within the billions by now. The trouble with Axact is, and this is something that I have always maintained, they have a fantastic ERP product portfolio that was put together by some of the sharpest minds in the country. They just chose the easy money route.

I must also point out here that the company does not and has never participated in building or maintaining porn websites. That is just a rumor. They buy space to host their fraudulent websites from GoDaddy so they do not even host the content.

DHA is Defence Housing Authority. Its an area in Karachi where offices, banks and residential bungalows are located.

AXACT’s Karachi building is located in DHA area.

shahbaz

I’m a bit dismayed at all this talk of this company causing a bad name for Pakistan. If that is the only concern, then an equally good solution to Axact’s alleged misdeeds is to cover up the problem, blame NYT and the whistle blowers, complain about foreigners airing our dirty laundry.

IF THE ALLEGATIONS ARE TRUE, these people caused real financial and psychological damage to lots of people. If this company was selling fake degrees to cheaters who were looking to buy fake credentials, then the company and their customers deserve each other. However, there are allegations of Axact defrauding a large number of people, many of whom spent a great deal of money attempting to improve their lives.

I am heartened that people like Jehan Ara had already called them out. I am further encouraged that many of their employees saw what they were doing and decided to give up lucrative salaries in favor of cleaner living.

i was part of AXACT in when i realize the nature of work i resigned from designation as a senior executive brand management within 3 month my JD is to manage fake MUST UNIVERSITY online presence.

sherazi

plz take a break and think over it its just a article that has divided us. Whatever the case may be we just have to wait and see is it true and the claming to have worked for axect oooo prove it that u were part of this organization i can also claim but is it true think plxxx before reacting

sherazi

And my brothers and sisters plx before u defame our beloved country plx relax at this point of tym we need to look for solutions rather then spraying the shit all around so plx coment

Cheebz

it was actually quite easy for Axact to challenge/defend NYT. All they had to do was state their World leading Products they sell (actual names/brands of their product), famous customer (i.e. University, Govt Departments, Corporate organisations etc), Their total revenue, Their total assets, reason why CEO pays only RS 26 as tax, how are they able to have monthly Mega parties (pics on their websites) whcih even Google, Apple, Microsoft dont do. All companies boast about their customers, their super brands, their company lifestyle (i.e. Google), the total worth. also is Axact listed on Stock exchange? because I am not aware of any organisation of such size being privately owned.

muhammad ziad

Thanks for sharing the inside workings of Axact. I must say what a pathetic sales pitch you guys throw at the customer and can imagine the types of people who get trapped. They are the same breed who fall for the Nigerian scams.

Sales is about passion and honesty. I have worked in the cold call industry for several years and never came across a single moment where I have to lie to secure a sale. I worked for a company who would insist to add urgency In your pitch which is the key to sale. In every multinational cooperation you are taught to add a story for the customer to buy now rather than later, this is reiterated twice to close the prospect. If one has the passion to sell and the confidence enough then he can sell without even creating a fake story.

Companies who sell fake products, sales over credit card (all call centers) , cannot prosper on the basis of lies as a salesmen would never believe in the product he’s selling. I specifically sold summits (a platform to bring industries together for business) in a reputable multinational company. I have seen the importance of having such a product and have sold in markets like Europe and US products worth $15000, all genuine authentic and legal summits bringing two groups on industries together in a one to one meetings. None of the companies in Pakistan operate on this level not do they benefit Pakistani economy.

Those educated lot who worked at Axact ought to be punished with a minor sentence just to make them understand what they get for defaming Pakistan, working for money, concealing truth and moreover bringing a bad name to the sales industry overall.

Zach

I think it’s good start that story like this is being published by NYTimes than the usually stories of number of dead people.

May be it will give us new focus on corruption in our society since we have been stuck in war mood for too long and ignored other issues in the society.

Billy

I completely endorse this article. I have been an ex-employee too and I bear witness to all this happening in the Karachi office. My friends are senior managers of these university, ‘brands’, and they are the ones making the website look glorious. These websites are designed and developed here in Karachi. There is no actual existence of these sites and the sales agent are to meet a monthly target of $$$$ based on which they do everything possible to fool people. Please, if you’ve got friends or relatives working there, take them out. Everything about that place is fake. From its website design websites to its degree websites.

naseem

I wonder if somebody goes for professional degree or deploma with out verification of the Institute. It implies “fake degree for fake purpose”.

Mashalkhan

who the fuck are you to decided that Axact has run any illegal busines. U all should asham and go to hell. Lets the court decide who is right and who is wrong.

Haji

People are acting like scams don’t take place in the world. They are acting like moral police.
The story above is made up. Just check number of scams in the US. A google seach would help.